Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, has vowed that if elected on February 25 he will make sure that the newly discovered oil wells in the north are not shut down but instead are investigated to develop the area.
At his campaign event, held on Tuesday at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium in Bauchi State, he made the promise while soliciting votes.
“They’ve been telling us for many years that there is oil and gas in the North-East from Lake Chad; now it’s Bauchi and Gombe states,” Atiku remarked in part.
Here is yours from the Northeast today. If you support the PDP, we’ll make sure that this time around, oil and gas exploration is done. No one will plug up our oil wells and declare there is no more oil or gas! By God’s grace, I wish to make this pledge to you.
“People have been wondering how this crude oil would be transported if it were to be explored. I want to reassure you that we will repair our railways so that we can move this crude to its final destination. Even our neighbors, Niger, can be seen exploring for oil; do they export it? The oil is also explored in Chad, but they don’t export it. We also use our unique methods to export this crude.
Ifeanyi Okowa, his running mate, also spoke during the event and predicted that “the people of Bauchi will give us nothing less than two million votes.” He claimed that the rally’s large throng had spoken with the Bauchi people.
Bala Mohammed, the governor of Bauchi State, promised Atiku in his speech that the state belonged to him and that he would receive all of the votes from there on behalf of the other PDP candidates running in the state.
